Ricardo Enrique Alba Torres, a young man whose company is using innovation to make water available to poor communities in Colombia and other parts of Latin America, has scooped the coveted Cisco Youth Leadership Award, netting himself R4.6m.
Torres is one of six young creative activists with a passion for helping the very poor across the planet whose efforts will be celebrated at a Global Citizen Now ceremony in New York on May 1 and 2.
“I am excited to be recognised as this year’s winner of the Global Citizen Prize: Cisco Youth Leadership Award. With Cisco’s support I will be able to further expand my work to improve water access across Latin America, impacting many more lives,” said Torres, whose Eko Group H2O+ provides environmentally sustainable technologies to solve water challenges.
Global Citizen, the world’s leading advocacy organisation, said on Thursday Torres’ expertise has impacted more than over 150 communities, with 15,000 active users who benefit from 350 Ekomuro H20+ tanks installed in various communities.
It is an honour to celebrate these inspirational trailblazers, who are dedicating their lives to uplifting the most vulnerable in their local communities and advancing the fight against ending extreme poverty across the world
— Liza Henshaw, president of Global Citizen
“If we are to address the world’s most pressing issues, we need to support young leaders who are taking action now,” said Liza Henshaw, president of Global Citizen.
The prize is awarded annually to a young person (under 30) whose efforts help solve global challenges.
Other Global Citizen Prize winners include three from Africa:.
- Uganda’s Andrew Ddembe, who heads Mobiklinic Foundation;
- Tanzania’s Lydia Charles Moyo, who founded Panda Digital; and
- the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Olivier Bahemuke Ndoole, who is an environmental rights lawyer.
Sophie Healy-Thow, founder of Act4Food from Ireland and Fiji-based Vishal Prasad, who is a campaign director for Pacific Students Fighting Climate Change, complete this year’s winners. They will receive a cash grant and a year’s support for the work they do in gender equity, civic space, climate change, food and nutrition, health and vaccines.
“It is an honour to celebrate these inspirational trailblazers, who are dedicating their lives to uplifting the most vulnerable in their local communities and advancing the fight against ending extreme poverty across the world,” added Henshaw.
Fran Katsoudas, chief people, policy & purpose officer of Cisco, said on Thursday the company believed the world needed innovators like Torres to lead the way in global problem solving.
“Through the creation of environmentally sustainable technology, Ricardo’s solutions aim to address the water supply issues impacting thousands of lives across Latin America. We are honored to help accelerate his vital work as over two billion people are living with an inadequate water supply,” said Katsoudas.
The Global Citizen Prize is part of Global Citizen NOW, a two-day summit taking place in New York City on May 1 and 2, convening government leaders, private sector executives, grassroots activists, cultural innovators, philanthropic experts, and leading journalists to set a global agenda for action on the most urgent issues facing humanity and the planet.
The Global Citizen Prize will be hosted by CBS News national correspondent and featured co-host of CBS Mornings Vladimir Duthiers and will feature musical performances by four-time Grammy-nominated country superstar Mickey Guyton, and violinist and composer Ezinma.
Global Citizen has sought to place the world’s poor at the forefront of its campaigns through debates on pressing global challenges including poverty and the impact of global warming on poor countries and through awards to activists who champion issues affecting vulnerable communities.
This year’s summit will be addressed by, among others, president of Botswana Mokgweetsi Masisi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame. They will lead a high-level cohort of political, corporate and philanthropic leaders to address the conference.
The Cisco Youth Leadership Award was last year won by Zimbabwean science teacher Nkosana Butholenkosi Masuku at a ceremony hosted by South African actress and humanitarian ambassador Nomzamo Mbatha.
Masuku founded Phenomtech-Sciency to make science, technology and engineering (Stem) accessible to rural learners.
“Sciency was started because when I was teaching in rural areas, I realised it was difficult for learners to comprehend practical science subjects. This was due to lack of [study] aid materials. The advantage of teaching them practicals in science, technology, engineering and mathematics is that it enables learners to retain their knowledge, thereby reducing the dropout rates,” Masuku, an alumnus of the Mandela Washington Fellowship, said as he accepted the award last year.
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